Chesspieces
by Laughter's Tears
Summary: April O'Neil is done being a pawn in Karai's chess set. She's tired of being paranoid, and she's frustrated with being under constant enemy watch. It's time to turn the tables.
1. Pawn No More

I should not be allowed to start new chapter fics. Yes, this is a new one. It's something a little different than other things that I've done before. A bit lighter on the humor, heavier on the suspense, and it takes at least one character to limits that are somewhat new to me. Oh, but it's been fun to write!  
I hope you enjoy!

* * *

At first she'd kept the drapes closed. It was a foolish modicum of security. April knew that mere millimeters of fabric wouldn't stop the soundwaves from reaching their listening devices. But she gloried in the knowledge that they could only hear her.

And then she found the bug. It resembled Don's remote turtle-cam on a smaller scale. The thing, fascinating as it was, met its end beneath a copy of Webster's Dictionary.

The drapes were open now and no more cameras had been sent in. It irked her, and she stood glaring at what had been identified as the usual post for the Foot ninjas who regularly spied on her from the rooftops across the street.

In an hour or so Casey would arrive for their date, having come from first clearing out the nest of peeping-toms. But it still galled her. Every other American had some semblance of a right to privacy and now she was lucky if the garbage men got to her trash before the ninjas did. She bore no illusions about her landline- it was tapped. She used her shell cell for the important calls anyways, but it still bothered her to know that the Foot knew every detail of her weekly conversations with her sister. That they knew about her soon-to-be-born nephew was downright chilling. They knew things about her that Casey didn't even know. They knew about the strife with her parents and about her troubles sleeping. They knew that she was having financial trouble with the turn in the economy. Whenever she looked up at those windows it was as if the walls were closing in on her. How much did Karai know? How little? Did she care? What could be used against her? Against her friends? Had she said too much that one time her uncle had called from Madagascar? Could they deduce that it was Donatello who wanted to order that computer part and not her?

She wondered if this was how it felt to be stalked. Except that she knew that she wasn't the true goal- the prize- she was merely a means to an end. The only visible connection to the turtles. And for that they watched her like a hawk. But that there was always that fear in the back of her mind that one day Karai would decide that she was a pawn worth sacrificing in the interests of breaking the current stalemate.

The day the van showed up, she knew that she'd had enough of the silent glaring. Walking by the window on her way to dress for her date, April shot the vehicle a one-finger salute.

She'd had enough. It was time to hit back.

* * *

"It was the straw that broke the camel's back"...  
I've actually had this first chapter on my computer for quite some time now. It just needed a bit of reworking. The idea for this whole thing sprang from the random thought while watching season four that "I'd become so paranoid if I had evil ninjas watching my home!" It sort of snowballed from there...


	2. Setting Up The Board

Here is the second chapter. If you recognize it, it's not mine.  
On with the Chapter!

* * *

Working with Donatello had become one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences in April's life- a close second to her relationship with Casey. His creativity was amazing and April found herself thinking and theorizing things that she never would have been able to if she had kept her understanding of science confined to a lab. While she didn't quite have the knack for invention that he did, she'd learned how to replicate several of his smaller and more necessary inventions.

Moving back into the kitchen, April began to formulate her plan. She would require equipment to build a small and mobile surveillance system. Adapting plans for existing equipment shouldn't be a problem. If she acquired the equipment slowly, then Karai wouldn't suspect anything until it was too late. April even had some parts in the basement to get started that very night.

She smiled at the thought of privacy again.

* * *

In the coming weeks, the surveillance ninjas didn't notice anything peculiar about the O'Neil woman's behavior in between being chased off by her irate boyfriend or the turtle creatures. However, her closest friends began to notice that something was amiss with their friend. None of them could put their finger on it.

Raphael, whose turn it was, reported that April had insisted on accompanying him on the monthly inspection of their tunnel security systems. Casey found it a relief, but somewhat odd, that April had agreed to watch Mission: Impossible with him for their date night instead of arguing for something more romantic. And Donatello reported that April had asked to borrow a Turtle-Cam claiming that she wanted to use it for the shop, but she gave it back less than a week later.

There was one day when April commandeered Casey's apartment and set herself up with her laptop, a box of pizza and a whole case of bottled Starbucks frappuchios while she feverishly hacked away at… something. Casey couldn't figure out what and he never did. All of the evidence was gone by the time he got back from 'hunting' with Raph.

All of the turtles saw the plywood blind that had gone up in the basement. April calmly explained that she was using the area as a storage space and let the matter drop. No one believed, or wanted to believe, that April would lie to them but something just felt off about the whole thing. Leo's instincts were screaming at him to check the area out and he resolved to do so, but later that evening April looked straight at them and thanked them for respecting her privacy and helping her with the situation Karai had put her in- ninjas watching and listening to her night and day. She had smiled and said how the whole thing was making her paranoid, but she still- always would- feel completely safe around them.  
It was a total guilt trip. Leo never touched whatever was hidden behind that plywood blind. Then abruptly the odd behavior ended.

That was about the time that Karai's problems began.

* * *

Cue dramatic music! :D (if you would actually like to cue dramatic music, may I suggest dramabutton .com ?)


	3. Opening Moves

It's the Karai chapter! Something tels me she won't be as enthused as the majority of you reviewers have been to see what April's been plotting...  
As always, I own nothing. Enjoy!

* * *

Karai sank back into her seat as the helipad of the Oroku International Enterprises building came into view. Homecoming stirred up such mixed emotions in her lately. The trip to Japan had gone exceedingly well. Despite a few early stumbles, it appeared that she had left the Tokyo branch of the Foot Clan in good hands.

While they did not cooperate so closely with the legitimate business as the American branch did, both aspects of her father's legacy were thriving and profiting. It was a nice change to hear constant reports of success. For two glorious weeks she listened to reports, made suggestions, and inspected facilities. Perhaps it was not every business-woman's idea of a vacation, but in that whole two weeks Karai never once heard mention of the accursed turtles or their rat master- the freaks who had stolen her beloved father from her. That was vacation enough for her.

The helicopter touched down and Karai sighed, then straightened in her seat. She had no time to be wistful, not while Leonardo and his family were still at large and making themselves a nuisance to her company. Not while Hun and his gang of Purple Dragons still believed they could vie with her for power.  
She strode purposefully from the helicopter, issuing orders for updates and listening with distaste. New York was so very disappointing. It would be a long evening.

* * *

It was nearing midnight when Karai was finally able to enter her own bedroom. Jet-lag weighed her feet down, but her senses were on alert as always. She did not afford herself the illusion that she was intimidating enough that no one would dare attack her in her private quarters. When she had determined that the room was secure, the door was sealed with a magnetic lock. From the outside, it could only be overridden with cooperation from both the security booth and the key held by the guards outside the door. Better safe than sorry.

Only when the room was locked tight did Karai allow herself to relax. She kicked off the high-heeled shoes that she wore with her suits, smiling in relief as her feet hit the soft carpet. The shoes added much to the appearance of a successful business-woman, but they were impractical for a ninja and they _hurt_ by the end of the day. If Karai ever found the man responsible for the creation of the ridiculous style of shoe, she swore that she would break every bone in his foot and force him to walk about in his own creations for the rest of his miserable days.

By the time she was done heaping her proclamations of malice upon the shoe industry, Karai had reached the bathroom. She was tired, it was late, and her feet hurt. Her only intention was to take a nice long bath and go to bed. That was before she found the note. Affixed to the back of the bathroom door was a photo of her stepping out of the helicopter that very afternoon; beside it was a note composed of letters cut from a newspaper. Its contents: _"Welcome home, Karai."_ were hardly anything earthshattering. It was its mere existence that marked it as a threat.

Karai narrowed her eyes but refrained from touching the paper. Instead, she calmly walked over to the door and alerted alerted the guards to the situation. As her room filled with the personnel necessary for the forensic investigation, Karai held herself back from yawning. Finally, she gave up and moved with her security detail to one of the guest quarters.

The next day, as she tried to fit an investigation of an apparently exceptionally skilled stalker into her already overflowing schedule, Karai amused herself with imagining different ways to make this petty prankster pay for his miscalculation in targeting her. She would make sure it was an unforgettable mistake.

* * *

*Cue dramatic music* What has April gotten herself into?!


	4. Control of the Center

Hey there! The bunny's not dead!  
Here we have April's point of view on that last chapter.

* * *

It was terrorism, pure and simple. April knew it, and indeed that was the point. She sat a few blocks from Foot Headquarters in her van, laptop running off an auxiliary charger, as she guided her little bots out of the skyscraper and back towards her temporary command center. Paranoia and guilt flared to the surface as she waited. It wasn't as though she had set some sort of bomb or released any malware or chemical agents—all she had done was leave a few notes that basically amounted to "I see you" and downloaded some data. However, this cloak and dagger stuff wasn't as easy to get used to as she thought it would be. What if Karai figured it out too soon? What if she blamed the turtles? What if she wasn't fazed at all? April turned up the air conditioner to combat the sudden beads of sweat forming on her brow and in her underarms.

THUNK!

She jumped and nearly hit her head on the ceiling. There were several more quiet thunks coming from the back of the van. April looked and couldn't see anyone. Her heart skipped a beat as her first thought was that Foot ninjas were attempting to break into her van. Then she glanced down at her monitoring equipment and was relieved that her second thought had proved to be correct: the bots had made it back. Quickly she took control of them via the remote to guide them to her door so that she could usher them inside and be on her way.

As she drove back towards her apartment, the enormity of what she'd just done began to weigh on her. Suddenly she couldn't take it anymore. April pulled into the first parking space she saw and buried her head in her arms, fighting to catch her breath. What on Earth had she been thinking? That she could take on Karai alone? That she would _scare_ the ninja into submission? The woman had _stabbed_ a sixteen year old in the shoulder and vowed revenge on him the very next day! This could only end badly. Someone would wind up dead because she had poked the sleeping tiger. Silent tears rolled down her cheeks.

Casey would be at her apartment in just over an hour to pick her up for their date. She needed to get back, to get ready. The prospect of returning to her apartment, the place where she was watched, made her feel sick to her stomach. At that moment there was nothing she was more sure of than the fact that going back to her apartment was impossible. Not with those sentries standing guard, watching her every move. In her periphery April was vaguely aware of pedestrians on the sidewalk slowing down as they passed by, most likely staring at her as she rested her head on the steering wheel and let her frustration out in big wet tears. In one quick movement she reached up and turned the key in the ignition, killing the engine. She was going to be here a while, might as well not waste gasoline.

It felt like a lifetime. April sat there as the stress, anger, frustration, and helplessness of the past few months catch up with her. Finally, she sat up again. Pulling down the visor, April glanced at herself in the mirror and grimaced, then reached for a napkin from the glove box. It didn't do much for the red blotches on her cheeks or her puffy eyes, but there was something about the act of wiping the tears away that began the process of picking herself back up. When she turned the van back on the sight of the clock made her wince. She'd have to book it in order to be ready for her date on time.

The next day she moved merchandise around in the store for no particular reason just to have an excuse to look at the boxes of turtle-cams. They were slowly but surely downloading in the basement. It was all she could think about all day long. When the day was done, she dutifully held out. The Foot were watching her. Kept going this fast, kept slipping down there for any poorly fabricated excuse she could think of, they would catch on. Or they'd at least start to think of it as an area that they ought to monitor. Time was on her side. She could wait this out.


End file.
